Many goings on
Been crazy busy lately. I'm not really sure why, but lots has been going on, on many fronts.
Rangers Everywhere
Went down to LA for thanksgiving with family. It was a good time. The family guest rooms were full, so I stayed with rangers instead. It was actually really nice to decompress each evening with burners, after all day with family. Had much fun hanging out with rangerpeaches, rangertarmac, and twistedcat, among others.
(Saw Happy Feet with the family. Don't bother.)
This past weekend, brcmapgirl was in town for an interview. She and dafydd and I went to Mashiko for Omikase. They call it that because you say "Oh my..." and then swoon with nearly every bite. We then adjourned to a lovely tea with rwx.
News of the brother
Two and a half weeks ago, on sunday night, my brother called. I usually take calls from family, but because I was out to dinner I let it go to voicemail. I forgot about it, and didn't check the message until after midnight. It was a quiet message, I couldn't hear very well, but he was "just checking in" and looking for mom's phone number. I thought that odd, as he should have it. It was late, so instead of calling, I texted it back to him.
The next day, mom called. Turns out my brother had been in a motorcycle accident a few days prior, and broken his leg. He'd been in the hospital for a few days, in surgery, and somewhat groggy from the painkillers. Needless to say, he would not be joining the rest of the family in LA (he lives in Oakland).
(Don't read this paragraph if you're squeamish.)
I finally spoke with him last week. He had a double compound fracture, both his tibia and fibula (my uncle had used the word "dangling" to describe the condition of his lower leg/foot). My brother now has two scars, one on his shin where the bones were poking out, and another that goes 4 or 5 inches straight down from his patella, where they, in his words, "drilled out the bone and pounded in the titanium nail" which holds the bone together. Of course the nail is held in by titanium screws. I need to ask him for an x-ray of the hardware.
My mom spent 2 days with him right after thanksgiving before flying home. He spent thanksgiving with a bunch more of the family at our cousin's place in Oakland.
Needless to say, this situation has put a bit of a crimp in his schedule these past few weeks, which is why he was completing his essays to transfer to Berkeley at literally, the 11th hour. I spent a few hours last week reading and editing his essays, and on the phone with him. Good stuff. It was actually a lot of fun. He's a great human. You'd like him; everyone does.
Career
Had the 2nd interview on monday with a place I did a round with before thanksgiving. Heard yesterday I got the job. It's a four month contract, with possible extension, doing user experience work for a local company. Should be a good project, not web-based(!), decent pay and benefits, and the commute is shorter than my last one. I start monday.
I've also been having many interesting conversations with many people about the work I'd love to be doing full time, namely knowledge visualization and information graphics stuff. Hopefully, when this contract ends, I'll have a few opportunities to pursue in that direction.
Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of consulting for a women's health non-profit. I'll probably try to wrap it up over the weekend, before the job starts.
My advisor asked me to peer review a paper (not his) for publication, and so I did. Suggested some changes. That was fun and validating.
Personal ponderings
Nope, not quite ready to write this section yet. Still pondering. Soon. Maybe.
Mundanities and current events
Last week I went to see Keith Knight, author of The K Chronicles give a slideshow and talk (realplayer format of the presentation) about his work. He's taller and better looking in person than his strip. Funny as hell and very insightful. You should buy his books. (Note at 1:50, his commentary re: ILTPAM, and the bit for lefties at 7:50.)
This weekend I went with friends and saw The Maze Project at the big downtown library. Way fun, interactive, free. Highly recommended. For the best view of the final act, lie down. (D'oh, ends thursday. Go see it!)
Yesterday, bster came over to help me install Parallels and windows on my MacBookPro. It's kind of cool, but also disturbing at a very visceral level. I actually felt kind of dirty while we were doing it. (It's so I can run Visio for work stuffs.) (Side note: it's fun having someone else come over to fix my computer for a change.)
Last night I went and saw my friend D as the featured poet at the Seattle Poetry Slam. She totally rocks. Totally. Enjoyed seeing fyrestarter, as usual.
Tonight I spent (another) 2 hours formatting PDFs of my thesis, two for printing, one for e-distribution. No, I don't understand why it's taking so long either. Well, yes I do. I'm never using word for anything important again. wasta has been very helpful.
Had 20 minutes to kill in Bellevue today, between appointments. Popped into Relax The Back and drooled over the Zero-G chairs. I want one, but not for the price of a laptop.
That's it, for now, I think.
Rangers Everywhere
Went down to LA for thanksgiving with family. It was a good time. The family guest rooms were full, so I stayed with rangers instead. It was actually really nice to decompress each evening with burners, after all day with family. Had much fun hanging out with rangerpeaches, rangertarmac, and twistedcat, among others.
(Saw Happy Feet with the family. Don't bother.)
This past weekend, brcmapgirl was in town for an interview. She and dafydd and I went to Mashiko for Omikase. They call it that because you say "Oh my..." and then swoon with nearly every bite. We then adjourned to a lovely tea with rwx.
News of the brother
Two and a half weeks ago, on sunday night, my brother called. I usually take calls from family, but because I was out to dinner I let it go to voicemail. I forgot about it, and didn't check the message until after midnight. It was a quiet message, I couldn't hear very well, but he was "just checking in" and looking for mom's phone number. I thought that odd, as he should have it. It was late, so instead of calling, I texted it back to him.
The next day, mom called. Turns out my brother had been in a motorcycle accident a few days prior, and broken his leg. He'd been in the hospital for a few days, in surgery, and somewhat groggy from the painkillers. Needless to say, he would not be joining the rest of the family in LA (he lives in Oakland).
(Don't read this paragraph if you're squeamish.)
I finally spoke with him last week. He had a double compound fracture, both his tibia and fibula (my uncle had used the word "dangling" to describe the condition of his lower leg/foot). My brother now has two scars, one on his shin where the bones were poking out, and another that goes 4 or 5 inches straight down from his patella, where they, in his words, "drilled out the bone and pounded in the titanium nail" which holds the bone together. Of course the nail is held in by titanium screws. I need to ask him for an x-ray of the hardware.
My mom spent 2 days with him right after thanksgiving before flying home. He spent thanksgiving with a bunch more of the family at our cousin's place in Oakland.
Needless to say, this situation has put a bit of a crimp in his schedule these past few weeks, which is why he was completing his essays to transfer to Berkeley at literally, the 11th hour. I spent a few hours last week reading and editing his essays, and on the phone with him. Good stuff. It was actually a lot of fun. He's a great human. You'd like him; everyone does.
Career
Had the 2nd interview on monday with a place I did a round with before thanksgiving. Heard yesterday I got the job. It's a four month contract, with possible extension, doing user experience work for a local company. Should be a good project, not web-based(!), decent pay and benefits, and the commute is shorter than my last one. I start monday.
I've also been having many interesting conversations with many people about the work I'd love to be doing full time, namely knowledge visualization and information graphics stuff. Hopefully, when this contract ends, I'll have a few opportunities to pursue in that direction.
Tomorrow I'm going to do a bit of consulting for a women's health non-profit. I'll probably try to wrap it up over the weekend, before the job starts.
My advisor asked me to peer review a paper (not his) for publication, and so I did. Suggested some changes. That was fun and validating.
Personal ponderings
Nope, not quite ready to write this section yet. Still pondering. Soon. Maybe.
Mundanities and current events
Last week I went to see Keith Knight, author of The K Chronicles give a slideshow and talk (realplayer format of the presentation) about his work. He's taller and better looking in person than his strip. Funny as hell and very insightful. You should buy his books. (Note at 1:50, his commentary re: ILTPAM, and the bit for lefties at 7:50.)
This weekend I went with friends and saw The Maze Project at the big downtown library. Way fun, interactive, free. Highly recommended. For the best view of the final act, lie down. (D'oh, ends thursday. Go see it!)
Yesterday, bster came over to help me install Parallels and windows on my MacBookPro. It's kind of cool, but also disturbing at a very visceral level. I actually felt kind of dirty while we were doing it. (It's so I can run Visio for work stuffs.) (Side note: it's fun having someone else come over to fix my computer for a change.)
Last night I went and saw my friend D as the featured poet at the Seattle Poetry Slam. She totally rocks. Totally. Enjoyed seeing fyrestarter, as usual.
Tonight I spent (another) 2 hours formatting PDFs of my thesis, two for printing, one for e-distribution. No, I don't understand why it's taking so long either. Well, yes I do. I'm never using word for anything important again. wasta has been very helpful.
Had 20 minutes to kill in Bellevue today, between appointments. Popped into Relax The Back and drooled over the Zero-G chairs. I want one, but not for the price of a laptop.
That's it, for now, I think.